The most powerful machine. Weekly Torah "Metzora"

Nachum Purer




Continuing the theme of ritual impurity, the Torah tells us about the cleansing "leper" ( "Metzora"). This process takes a week. "Metzora" had to bring a few victims in the Temple and a dip in the mikvah, then Cohen declared it clean. If "Metzora" was poor, he was allowed to sacrifice cheaper animals. The following describes the "leprosy", which may be affected homes in the Land of Israel. Once on the walls appeared the first "ulcer" of the house took out things, and when the diagnosis "tsaraat" confirms masonry broke out affected stones and the walls were removed all the plaster inside and out. When the display of these "plagues" house completely demolished. Next topic - "impure" sexual selection in men and women. The man with the "run" was to avoid contact with other people and objects. Detail is described purification procedure.


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"And Gd spoke to Moses, so:" Let this be the law of the leper (Metzora) ' "(14: 1, 2).

Commentators explain: "Metzora" means "Cosmin Moţi shem ra" - curseth (literally - a enduring a bad name).

Iron gates swung open plant with a shrill squeak. Pale gray glare snatched from the darkness of the cave, polished flanks of the mighty machines. These steel giants went into the black depths shop slim and formidable succession. Their silent power to inspire fear and awe. The majestic and frightening picture. One, two, three ... two hundred forty-eight machines.

Duty Master led the main aisle of the new employee. They silently passed before the end of the shop. It seemed that their trip lasted an eternity. And now they are here. At the end of the parade industrial power towered main miracle of technology. This machine stood out from the other machines, like Moby Dick among ordinary whale. Steel monster suggestive holy terror on all who see it for the first time.

"Well, here we are, - said the master on duty. - Here is our main machine. Without it, all other equipment is not worth the metal at him ... nothing. It affects the plan of the factory, the very existence of our company, his life and death ... "

Our language - the most powerful machine in the world. On the giant factory called "The Man" run two hundred forty-eight all kinds of machines and appliances, ensure the functioning of the complicated "Enterprise": 248 organs of the body, corresponding to the same number of imperative commandments of the Torah. But the language is stronger than all of them.

One word, spoken language, can hit a man with sniper accuracy at any distance out of reach even intercontinental missiles. One word can cause an epidemic, more terrible than anthrax and cholera together.

At the same time, a single word can cure a person faster and more successfully than open-heart surgery. One word sometimes becomes a welcome gift than "a million red roses."

Our world was created by the word: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Gd created the entire universe, life itself, using twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. And he gave the man an incredibly powerful "machine" - language and other organs of speech.

The world is full of intelligent animals, but none of them can not speak. Animals roar, hiss, squeak and moan - slurred. Yet no one, even the most intelligent dog is not composed at least unpretentious poem.

Western materialistic culture calls bipedal tailless species homo sapiens - Homo sapiens. In Jewish tradition, the man - a "medaber" - the person speaking. He entrusted the car, more powerful and more dangerous than to split the atom. For, like the very Creator of the universe, each of us can be a word to destroy worlds and build them.


Three parts of the body


"And the kohen shall take the blood guilt offering, and anoint the Kohen the lobe of the right ear to be cleansed, and the thumb of his right hand, and the thumb of his right leg" (14:14).

Man is divided into three parts, said Eshel Avraham (Rabbi Avraham David of Buchach, 1770-1840): the upper, middle and lower. The upper part of the body - is the head, which is the brain, our mental apparatus. In the middle of located heart. A lower part includes more prosaic organs.

That is why Cohen smeared the blood of three places on the body that are listed in the above verse, the leper's ear ( "Metzora"), because, according to the Talmudic sages, hearing is the most important sense; finger on your hand, because the hands perform the most active function, while in the middle part of the body; and toe, for enabling the movement of the legs, while in the lower part of the body.

Explaining the same passage from the section "Tzav", which describes the dedication of the Kohanim, Rabbeinu Bahe adds that the head corresponds to the world of angels, the heart - the world of the planets and the lower part of the body - our material world.

In any case, concludes the Eshel Avraham, anointing oil and the blood of a special place in the three parts of the body repentant leper Cohen fixes thus his body, which is the spiritual injury caused his evil tongue.


The reward for loyalty


Saturday section "Metzora" - Pre-Easter. It is traditionally, for a variety of reasons is called "Shabbat and-gadol" - "a great sabbath".

The first "Sabbath-Gadol and" the children of Israel noted in the slave Egypt five days before the Exodus, the 10th of Nisan. On the day they received their first commandment. It was a one-time Mitzvah does not apply to future generations. Jews were ordered to bring home the sheep as the Passover sacrifice. The very fact that the public sacrifice of the animal, deified by the Egyptians, testified to the spiritual emancipation of slaves recently. Throwing off the shackles of fear, the Jews have taken the first step on the path to freedom. Truly a "large", the great day.

The "Shabbat and-Gadol" after a week's Torah section read in synagogues special aftoru, an excerpt from the book of the prophet Malachi, which refers to the future coming of the Mashiach and the occurrence of the "Big day of Gd." In the same aftoru prophet reminds Jews of the need to tithe received crops. According to tradition, Passover around the world to set standards harvests. The sages say, "Failure to comply with the law of tithing heavens are closed, comes poverty, people in vain looking for earnings, and begins hunger ..." But if the Jews allocated for social needs tenth of their crops (and other income), then, as proclaimed prophet Malachi, we waiting for prosperity, "Bring the whole tithe into the treasure house, and it shall be food in My house; and prove me now this - the Lord said, - I will not open you the windows of heaven were there, and pour you out a blessing beyond measure "?

In principle, we are not allowed to test the Most High. Here you wake up on a Saturday morning and say to yourself: "Today is the Sabbath. On the sea I will not go, and I'll go just once to the synagogue. Let's see how Gd will reward me for this deed. " No, not likely to reward. Almighty (like any boss) does not like being blackmailed. But in this case, he says bluntly: "Prove me now. Donate a tenth of their earnings, and see how your generosity will pay off handsomely. Who gives - he does not lose. "


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